Trying to draw attention back to its Metaverse ambitions, Meta of its . That’s exactly half of what the company’s latest Quest 3 costs. An extra $50 will net you the 256 GB Quest 2, but if you’re looking to get one even cheaper, the company is advertising refurbished headsets starting at $230 and $270, respectively. No matter what, Meta is still in charge, and if the company giveth, it may also taketh away. Over the past week, Meta silently removed the option to let users stream to Chromecast. first reported during the holidays that users no longer find the option to cast to Chromecast, though they can still cast to a phone or computer. With the Chromecast dongle now useless for casting, users must first stream to a phone or computer before mirroring it on their TV. Meta’s now mentions that “Chromecast is not fully supported with Meta Quest,” and while the page notes it was updated a week ago, there’s nothing official to say why this is happening now. Gizmodo reached out to Meta for more information, but we did not immediately hear back. This change is impacting all Quest headsets, and it’s a big annoyance for anybody who depends on a dongle to show their VR on-screen. It’s a shame since the thanks to its mixed reality capabilities with full-color passthrough. It’s $50 less MSRP than , and it’s capable of playing more than just the exceedingly slim PlayStation 5 VR library. When Meta’s Quest 2 , it was billed as the loss leader to corner the VR market thanks to its wireless form factor and small price tag. The 64 GB version cost just $299 upon release. The price was such a big factor that when Meta Quest 2s by $100 back in 2022, it was seen as a sign that Meta’s pricing strategy wasn’t working out as planned. Last year, after the headset failed to gain any modicum of popularity as the Quest 2 had. Meta has also been seemingly far more open about its own software ecosystem as of late. The company , and you can . akin to Game Pass, but it’s very limited in terms of what titles become available every month. Extra accessories like the elite strap and carrying case have also dropped in price. Meta makes the claim that it’s the “most affordable way to get into VR” out there, and that might not just be mere puffery. The Quest 2 works well as a baseline VR headset if all you want to do is play some VR games, though it lacks any AR capabilities that will become the main selling point of this year’s headset releases, namely set to drop early this year. Speaking of, with the on the way, Meta is trying to get in front of what may be its biggest competition yet, even though a Quest 2 now costs a bare fraction of Apple’s “spatial computer.” Oft-cited industry analyst Ming Chi Kuo on
Christmas Eve that Apple’s only shipping around 500,000 units, and shipments are supposed to begin this month. It’s going to be a , so we might still have some time on our hands before the great VR wars of 2024 truly begin.